Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Sweet Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pickles
Combine the chopped green tomatoes and brown sugar in a large pot.
Boil the mixture for three hours, stirring occasionally.
Add the vinegar, mace, cinnamon, and cloves.
Boil for an additional fifteen minutes.
Cool and store
Let the mixture cool.
Transfer it to jars for storage.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,348 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green tomatoes
- Provide the bulk of the pickle and absorb the sugar and spices as they simmer.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves, draws moisture out of the tomatoes to form a syrup.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
- Mace
- Contributes a warm, aromatic flavour to the pickle.
- Cinnamon
- Contributes a warm, sweet aroma to the pickle.
- Cloves
- Contributes a strong, warm aroma to the pickle.
The step that matters
Long simmer of the tomato and sugar. Boiling for three hours lets the sugar draw water out of the tomatoes and thicken the mixture into a syrup. Stirring occasionally prevents the sugar from scorching on the bottom of the pot.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, mace, cinnamon, clove):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, mace, cinnamon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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